This “meta” isn’t here because shields are that great. Double barrier is here because of the power creep within the game and instead of admitting that the damage across the board is too high - the devs doubled down and said that they want to increase the damage even more.
They’re not trying to make the game actually be balanced but to target the META - that’s not balancing because you are isolating an issue in a particular environment and not focusing on the bigger picture.